Brazilian President Rousseff at an event earlier this year/via Flickr Creative Commons

Rousseff said that spying was “a breach of international law and as such it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries.”  Rousseff also said that Brazil would change its laws and policies to protect it from future incidents, including implementing new technology.

The Brazilian leader called the NSA's actions a “grave violation of human rights and of civil liberties.”

The NSA's spy activities on the Brazilian government, including Rousseff’s office, and Petrobras, the state oil company, was made public by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. 

Rousseff postponed a planned state visit to the United States last week over the NSA spy allegations.  The postponed visit was supposed to be the first official state visit for Obama’s second term.

Read more about Dilma Rousseff’s comments at RFE/RL and BBC News.

Reach Executive Producer Colin Hale here. Follow him on Twitter.